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A Russian missile strike on Ukraine\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital<\/a> on Monday highlighted the growing number of deadly attacks on medical facilities, vehicles and workers in the country this year. It adds to data from the World Health Organization and suggests that more Ukrainians may be on track to be killed in such attacks this year than last year.<\/p>\n Before the strike on the Ohmatdyt Children\u2019s Hospital in Kyiv, the W.H.O. documented 18 deaths and 81 injuries from more than 175 attacks on health care infrastructure in Ukraine for the first half of 2024. The organization also recorded 44 attacks on medical vehicles in that period.<\/p>\n In all of 2023, the organization tallied 22 deaths and 117 injuries from 350 such attacks, and 45 more specifically on medical vehicles like ambulances. Other organizations put the death toll even higher<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the attack on Monday, at least one doctor and another adult were killed at the hospital, and at least 10 other people, including seven children, were injured during a Russian barrage across the country. In all, the bombardment killed at least 38 people, including 27 in Kyiv, Ukraine\u2019s capital, local officials said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Attacks on civilian hospitals are prohibited under Article 18 of the Geneva Convention<\/a>, which was ratified by United Nations member states after World War II. And Article 20 of the convention says that health care workers must be protected by all warring parties.<\/p>\n Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian health care infrastructure, experts say, in a campaign that some say amounts to war crimes.<\/p>\n In a statement on social media on Monday, Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defense denied purposefully hitting civilian targets in Ukraine. Video of the attack taken by a Kyiv resident and verified by The New York Times showed a missile moving downward at high speed before striking the hospital.<\/p>\n Christian De Vos, an attorney and the director of research and investigations at New York\u2019s Physicians for Human Rights, said the world had yet to see a prosecution in an international court in which an attack on health care infrastructure was the main focus of the case. <\/p>\n Experts said Russia\u2019s attack targeted people at their most vulnerable and strained a Ukrainian health care system already stretched thin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cUnder international humanitarian law, hospitals and health care facilities are protected precisely because civilians are seeking care,\u201d Mr. De Vos said. \u201cThese are sites that are meant to ensure the protection of the civilian population and spare them from the horrors of war.\u201d<\/p>\n